Tag: Chicago Wolves

With the Blue Jays in Seattle for a weekend series against the Mariners, it seems my Twitter timeline has been filled with M’s fans who are riled up because they can’t seem to fathom why anyone from B.C. would choose to pull for a team from Toronto (wow, right?) against their local team.

You know, the “local” team that’s a three-hour and 230 km drive away from Vancouver.

How many people who have stumbled onto this blog and are from the Vancouver-area cheered for the Abbotsford Heat when they were around?

Didn’t think so.

And the Heat were a much bigger part of the local community, at least in one B.C.-based city, than the Mariners are in Vancouver. At least that’s my perspective.

Granted, I’m not heavily involved in the baseball scene. I see they’re a listed partner on Baseball BC’s website so I imagine they contribute something to local grassroots baseball. But then again, so are the Vancouver Canadians (naturally) and their major league affiliate who just so happens to be the Blue Jays.

To me, it seems like there’s a natural synergy there. If you’re cheering for the minor professional team based in Vancouver (it doesn’t get any more local than that), why wouldn’t you naturally cheer for their major league affiliate as well?

Or does it only work in reverse?

How many of those complaining about B.C.’s Jays fans used to make the trip out to Abbotsford to cheer on the Manitoba Moose or the Chicago Wolves back when they used to be the minor league affiliate of the Canucks?

There are plenty of good and compelling arguments you can make for why B.C. fans should pull for the Mariners but geography isn’t one of them.